Correction:
This story has been updated to reflect that Asian Services in Action has learned it did not receive a transitional housing grant that it applied for.
Federal grants that help victims of domestic violence, sexual violence and sex trafficking have not been paid out as promised, Akron-area agencies said, reducing their ability to provide services for people in need. The lack of funds could also imperil future programs, if grant money that was relied on in the past continues to be unavailable.
Representatives of Akron’s Hope & Healing Survivor Resource Center and Asian Services in Action both said federal money they use to fund staff at shelters and support victims, among other services, has not been paid out, despite grant awards that should have meant money arrived last fall.
The agencies are still waiting to hear whether they’ll receive money from more recent grant applications, information they should have gotten months ago. And grant applications that should have already opened for the next round of funding have not been announced, leaving those agencies worried about how to fill gaps that make up a large portion of their budgets.
“Not giving any notice to awards six months after they would have started is shocking to me,” said Kate Robbins, the chief development officer at Hope & Healing. “It’s very, very unsettling.”
The unreleased funds largely come from:
- The Family Violence Prevention and Services Act.
- The Violence Against Women Act.
- The Office for Victims of Crime.
- The Office on Violence Against Women.
All are funds that are appropriated by Congress.
No one from the Office on Violence Against Women, which is part of the Department of Justice, returned a phone call seeking comment about the grant status. The Office for Victims of Crime, also part of the DOJ, replied to an emailed request for comment asking for more time to respond.
Hiring delays because grants aren’t coming through
At Asian Services in Action, Anna Chen said there are multiple grants in limbo — money already should have arrived, but instead, the organization has received neither awards nor rejections for grants of $780,000 over a three-year period.
Chen, a spokesperson for ASIA, Inc., said it’s particularly affected the Ahimsa department — a Sanskrit word meaning nonviolence and respect for all living things — where those federal grants make up half the budget.
Decisions usually come Nov. 1, said Amanda Smith, Ahimsa’s program manager. But more than six months later, she still doesn’t know what money might come through.
After a delay, Smith found out grant money that is used to pay for a year or more of housing costs for victims of domestic violence or trafficking did not come through. She plans to apply for those funds again, but without the federal funds, she said, she may be able to cover a month’s rent but not more. There aren’t other long-term housing supports available, she said.
Other grants help ASIA, Inc. pay for food, clothes or survivors’ other necessities, like phone bills, something Smith said she’s no longer able to do on the same scale as before.
And with more than 80 clients served so far this year, Smith said she’s seeing a huge increase in need. The organization hasn’t been able to hire the additional bilingual advocates Smith would like to to provide support and help people navigate often-difficult systems.
“If we had this federal funding, we would be doing that,” she said. “It would be a lot more manageable.”
The delays are causing a lot of stress, Smith said, as ASIA, Inc. has instituted a sliding fee scale for legal services that were once free, a step the organization took during the coronavirus pandemic, and is trying to navigate funding uncertainties.
“We’re figuring out what the future might look like,” she said. “We’re really planning pennies to pennies. There are a lot of what-ifs.”
Hope & Healing ‘advocating like crazy’
At Hope & Healing — which was previously the rape crisis center and the battered women’s shelter — CEO Teresa Stafford-Wright said there is about $3 million in funding at risk over three years, between existing funds and new requests the organization hoped to be awarded.
Those funding concerns have a domino effect, she said. Without transitional housing funds, there’s nowhere to move people who are in a temporary shelter. Then, those beds remain full and the organization is able to help fewer people.
“I don’t want to scare people that we’re closing; that’s not where we are,” she said. “We are just afraid we will not be able to continue serving how we serve today.”
While different administrations often have different priorities, Stafford-Wright said she’s never before seen a shift that eliminates the ability to apply for grants at all. She called it extremely concerning, saying Hope & Healing was having difficult conversations about its funding structure and what else it might do to bring in money, including applying for other grants to help fill the gaps.
“We are advocating like crazy,” said Robbins, the chief development officer. “The stakes are much higher this year.”
It’s particularly concerning, Stafford-Wright said, because there’s been an increase in sexual violence, domestic violence and human trafficking in recent years.
The organization is looking for ways to shift money so it can keep providing needed services, Robbins said. But it’s hard to know what will eventually become available.
“These delays are burdensome, to say the least,” she said.
Lack of federal funds causes ongoing effects
At Hope & Healing, the uncertainty also hits money that helps people bring their pets with them when they go into shelters and that educates men and boys about sexual violence. Human trafficking grants focused on juveniles are also among those that are in flux.
Stafford-Wright said the grant delays can cause employees to leave the field because they don’t have job security, cause Hope & Healing not to fill open positions and make donors rethink their support. All that can make survivors feel like organizations aren’t steady enough to offer them help.
“The domino effect of this is real, it’s vast,” she said. “We are an organization that’s needed. It’s wobbling.”
The issue is affecting similar organizations around Ohio and the country, Stafford-Wright said. This year, no organization in the state has received any grant award from the Office on Violence against Women.
And while Smith said organizations like hers are making do with what they have, Chen said the situation has been difficult.
“Whatever the funding cuts and reason behind it is, it’s having real impact,” Chen said. “It’s real people going through incredibly complex and real traumas. We know they deserve really comprehensive support.”
